Reviewer Karen Dahood :
Karen lives in Tucson, AZ. After 35 years as a writer for businesses
and nonprofits, she has turned to writing mysteries,the subtext of
which addresses ageism, unpreparedness for aging, and America's
wealth of experience and wisdom. Learn more about eldersleuth Sophie
George at the Website Moxie
Cosmos; Making Sense of Life Through Writing.

By Karen Dahood

Published on May 12, 2013

Author: Victoria Houston

Publisher: Tyrus Books, 2013

ISBN 10: 1-4405-6218-0

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6218-1

Author: Victoria Houston

Publisher: Tyrus Books, 2013

ISBN 10: 1-4405-6218-0

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6218-1

A small-town woman flies
home to northern Wisconsin to rally her dad’s constituency, hoping
to gain enough support to fill his Senatorial shoes. Problem one:
she’s often drunk. When she fails to return to the capital for an
important party, her campaign manager comes after her, and finds the
house empty, the candidate’s purse on the kitchen counter.
Enveloping this plot is the isolation of long roads that divide dark
woods and a sudden flood, by which means body parts emerge to start
an investigation of nasty people and events.

Author Victoria Houston
has come to my attention late – after her 13th mystery. The name of
her fictional town – Loon Lake – was irresistible. I am a
Wisconsin girl, too, and the loon’s lonely call is part of my
baggage. Houston made her mark as a journalist and non-fiction writer
before she went back to her roots. That discipline shines through the
story here, which is scandalous, brutal, and realistic to one who has
seen the dark side of a region that is resplendent with old forests
and sparkling lakes alive with Walleyes. While the characters are
tempted, there’s little time for romance.

I have never before
encountered so many accurately portrayed, professional protocols in
one book, including those of media and marketing specialists. Also,
Houston’s nuances are admirable: there is no medical examiner
locally, so Sheriff Lew Ferris (a woman) uses the local dentist, Doc
Osborne, to identify corpses; Ray Pradt, a guide who wears a cap with
a stuffed trout sitting on top, has unofficial membership in an elite
Indian tracker society; the women are never classic beauties; and the
city slickers who come north to network are not total slime. Everyone
is just trying to do a job -- except the killer, who is motivated by
something deep and disturbing. Houston doesn’t tell us who that is.
We have to keep our eyes on the threats temporarily assembled in the
area. One of the most ominous personalities is the one most beloved.

Between
developments, Doc, Lew and Ray manage to take guests out on the lakes
and streams to fish, even people they don’t like. Houston shares
intimate details of the craft, including a connection between hair
extensions and the rising cost of fishing flies. This is superb
reading – but you really need to go there, or at least read more in
the series with an intriguing ensemble cast inspired by people the
author remembers from her childhood.